22 March 2006

The Mystery of The Four Emus

Astute New Zeland blogger Barbara pointed out in the last post that the Four Emus wine is from South Australia. I could have sworn that the website and promotional literature said Western Australia, so I went back to check. And sure enough, I was right. But I happen to do e-commerce work for a living, have an international user base, and have seen many strange things happen. So I logged back into the site, but picked Australia as my country of origin rather than the USA. Sure enough, the Australian website talks about South Australia complete with pictures and text about the region, while the American website has a similar profile of Western Australia. It's more than a mere typo, they're markedly different. And in case anyone is curious, the UK login is identical to the Australian one.

I find this kind of odd--Western Australian wine is kind of a niche product in the States, and someone really interested in that region probably wouldn't be buying an inexpensive table wine. I'd reckon that the majority of Americans (and even those that enjoy bargain Aussie wines) aren't aware of the different states and territories of Australia, much less the specific wine region names. So why would the winery market the wine differently? Is it actually sourced from different regions for different markets, or is it blended from all over?

I've e-mailed the winery for more information--I'll let everyone know what I find out.

Four Emus has been sold into the US exclusively with a Western Australia appelation (Frankland River primarily). In the UK and Australia it has been bottled with different juice (South East Australia) and as such is priced quite differently as well. Enjoy the Sem/Sauv it is delicious.